Southend Council has joined forces with other councils and more than 300 business outlets in the region to wage war on litter louts with a follow-up to last year’s highly successful Love Essex campaign.

With local authority budgets depleting every year, the demand and pressure on services such as street cleaning rises. Fast food packaging is again a key focus of the campaign. Local authority partnership the Cleaner Essex Group is determined to tackle the problem and knows that the joined-up approach has been tried, tested, and most crucially has brought results.

This year’s campaign reminds people to bin their litter responsibly, or risk a fine for littering from £75.

Following the success of the Essex-wide 2014 ‘Littering… it’s not pretty’ campaign, the partnership is growing in size and strength, with partners campaigning together under the banners of Love Essex, Love Suffolk and Love Kent. Until the end of September posters and fast food packaging will carry labels encouraging different target audiences to bin their litter.

Cllr Martin Terry, Executive Member for Public Protection, Waste and Transport, said: “Keeping Southend clean and tidy costs around £2m a year and our residents and businesses are paying for it. There will always be a cost to street cleansing and to empty litter bins, however if people did the right thing, some of this money could be saved and spent on other important things."He added: “This is too high a price for the majority to pay when it’s the minority who spoil it. Binning your litter is a pretty quick thing to do and makes our local environment a better place for everyone.”

Allison Ogden-Newton, recently appointed Chief Executive of environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy, said: “It is fantastic to see the Love Essex campaign going from strength to strength and the model being adopted by other counties. Campaigns like this, which see local authorities, charities, businesses and communities working together, are the best way to tackle the problem of litter that blights our streets, parks and beaches.”